[color=#000099][/color]The Academic Staff Union of
Universities on Tuesday called
off its over five months old
strike after deliberations that
started on Monday morning and
lasted till the early hours of Tuesday. The Union’s President Dr. Nasir
Fagge, told journalists at the
press briefing, which held at
the Science Complex building
of the Federal University of
Technology, Bosso Campus, Minna, Niger State, that it
accepted the resolutions
signed between ASUU and the
Federal Government on the
11th December, 2013 with the
President of Nigeria Labour Congress. “Finally, NEC resolved to
suspend the strike embarked
upon on 1st July 2013, with
effect from Tuesday December
17th, 2013 and directs its
branches to resume work forthwith”, he said. Fagge however condemned
some universities’ Vice
Chancellors, who tried to
sabotage the efforts of the
Union. According to him, “We
condemn, without any
reservation, Vice Chancellors,
who made efforts to
undermine and, in some cases,
attempted, to break ASUU’s strike”. Fagge said as part of its
expectation, the National
Executive Committee expects
the government to implement
fully the resolutions reached
and signed with the Union. He said, “First we expect that
implementation monitoring
committee which has already
been constituted to the
satisfaction of government and
ASUU, will work assiduously so that the process of
revitalisation of Nigerian
universities will receive the
much needed boost, and our
students and their parents will
begin to see the fruits of the ASUU struggles. “Our members expect the
immediate beginning of the
revitalisation process, given,
the letter FME/PS/398/C.I/Vol
1.1/110, of 12th December
2013, titled ‘Opening of a Dedicated Account for the
Revitalisation of Nigerian
Universities.” Earlier, the ASUU President
apologised to the Nigerian
Union of Journalists especially
the
journalists, who were
assaulted by some of the university lecturers on Monday
at the FUT, permanent campus,
Minna. Fagge said, “I apologise to you
for what transpired yesterday;
it is not in our habit to chase
away the press. We felt
mosquitoes were biting you
guys and you were outside in the cold. “Please, whatever transpired
between you (media) and
ASUU was not in our nature, on
behalf of the NEC and the
whole ASUU, I tender an
unreserved apology.”